Scattered Thoughts . . .

While we were staying in Dayton with Kenzie and Lukey back in June, we stayed at the Marriott Hotel at the University of Dayton.  This is a fairly new hotel...  actually, I don't think it was there the last time we were in Dayton...  so the hotel was clean.  In fact, the hotel was bursting at the seams with airshow participants when we arrived and it still seemed well organized and effectively managed.  In short, our stay at this hotel was very nice but not without a few little problems as one might expect during a long stay. We certainly have a few complaints just as we do with every hotel but I think our complaints here were quite minor by comparison.  For instance, it seems that all hotels have done away with daily housekeeping service even when all signage in the rooms indicate daily housekeeping service.  For instance, they have multiple signs telling you to put dirty towels on the floor of the bathroom if you want them replaced.  That would ...

Throughout our Amtrak journey to Ohio with Kenzie and Lukey back in June, we definitely ate well no matter which city we were in during our journey.  We always found exceptional restaurants.  The place we ate breakfast the most often was a small cafe at the University of Dayton called the Butter Cafe.  The place was a little run down but would have fit in perfectly in Vermont.  The food was quite good for breakfast so we ate here every morning while we were at UD... They offered fresh juices....  here we have a fresh watermelon juice in the middle...  the other two glasses are water and apple juice.  Lukey really enjoyed the fresh watermelon juice though... Sheila had this Dragon Fruit Smoothie Bowl every morning at Butter Cafe...   Lukey said the French Toast was good but not nearly as good as in Manhattan... The different flavors of "scrambles" were good but really looked like someone's garbage...  which reminds me of a line in "Uncle ...

F or the week or so that we were in Dayton back at the very beginning of this past summer, we visited a lot of different and historical places but we stayed on the campus of the University of Dayton during our entire time there.  I definitely wanted Kenzie and Lukey to visit a campus like this one and I'd like them to continue visiting as many campuses as possible.  Before we even made plans for this trip, I knew that if we were going to spend some time in Dayton, a UD campus tour would be something to do especially if we had the two of them in tow. I wrote above that I definitely wanted Kenzie and Lukey to visit this particular campus because it is a stunningly beautiful campus, it is an outstanding school and the people are unbelievably friendly both on the campus and off the campus.  This school is truly special.  There is a vibe, a feeling, like it has a life of its own.  You don't find that in a lot of places. I have very positive memories of UD and a fair...